David Kramer, a former State Department official and associate of Sen. John McCain, used his Fifth Amendment right to avoid testifying before the House Intelligence Committee concerning the Trump dossier’s Russian sources, according to a new report.
In December, Kramer was interviewed by the committee and signaled he had details concerning sources used in the dossier. He was then served a subpoena.
However, Kramer exerted his Fifth Amendment rights and did not meet with the committee, a law enforcement source told Fox News.
Kramer traveled to London in November 2016 where he retrieved a copy of the Trump dossier, written by former British spy Christopher Steele, who had composed the document. Upon returning to the U.S., Kramer gave the document to McCain and later to the FBI’s then-director, James Comey.
But the FBI had already received a copy from Steele, who reportedly had sent the agency the dossier in installments starting in July 2016.
Steele was hired by Fusion GPS, an opposition research firm. Last year, the Washington Examiner reported that over the summer of 2016, the firm was retained by lawyer Mark Elias, who represented the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee.
Some aspects of the dossier — like communications between foreign nationals — have been confirmed by officials; however, the majority of the scandalous allegations tying Trump to Russia have not been verified.
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., have requested the Justice Department to criminally investigate Steele to determine if he was misleading about how the dossier was distributed and his contacts with media.
